In 1856, James Smart established a hotel in the area. Soon after, a saloon and a store opened up. A year later Smart sold to L.B. Clark who turned the hotel into a store. As the mines got more active, the town grew. Four years before Smart even built his hotel, the Church of the Immaculate Conception was founded, albeit in Rose’s Bar. The church got a permanent structure in 1861.

The Church of the Immaculate Conception in Smartsville, CA. Photo: Alexandria Brown, September 7, 2013.

The first Bridgeport bridge was built in 1861, but was lost in a series of floods the following year. David Isaac John Wood rebuilt it as 249 feet long in 1862 using lumber from his own mill in Forest City. Those who wanted to cross had to pay a toll, and in 1863 alone he raked in nearly $21,000. Much of the Douglas fir used in construction is still holding up the bridge.

As the story goes, in 1849 an unnamed French immigrant built a corral for his mules, thus the town found its name. The nearby placer mines were booming and French Corral was an active stop on what is now Highway 20. The town boasted 300-400 people, making it a veritable metropolis in the Sierra foothills. But it was constatly beset by devasting fires. In 1877, the Ridge Telephone Company installed one of the first long-distance telephone lines in the country; it ran for 58 miles and ran from French Corral to French Lake and was operated by the Milton Mining Company.

Old Wells Fargo building, the terminus point of the first long-distance telephone line. Photo: Alexandria Brown, September 7, 2013.

Jeremiah Tucker and Christian Kientz, two men who owned the Gold Cut mining claim nearby, founded North San Juan in 1853. Supposedly Kientz named the town after San Juan de Ulúa, a castle in Veracruz, Mexico – the “North” was added because there was already a town in San Benito County with the name “San Juan.”

An abandoned auto garage in North San Juan. Photo: Alexandria Brown, September 7, 2013.

North Columbia, also known as Columbia Hill, was founded in the early 1850s, but not in its present location. When gold deposits were found under the site, the whole town was moved to its current location. “North” was added to the name in 1860 because there was already a Columbia in Tuolumne County. Two of earliest known miners in the area were the Tisdale brothers in 1853. Nearly $3 million worth of gold was pulled out of the placers during the mining era.

The Columbia Hill Schoolhouse was built in 1875 for $3000 and operated until 1979. Today it is the North Columbia Schoolhouse Cultural Center. Photo: Alexandria Brown, September 7, 2013.

When gold was found on Humbug River in 1852, a camp of miners panning for gold sprang up. The town of Humbug formed around them, later renamed North Bloomfield. After hydraulic mining was effectively crushed by a permanent injunction, many miners left the area. During World War I, many structures were destroyed and used for lumber. Later, Prohibition and the Great Depression reduced the population even further when the saloons closed up and jobs disappeared. As people left the tiny mountain town for work in the cities and to fight in World War II, the town dwindled to less than 20. The land was gifted to the state as a park in 1965.

Ostrom Stables. Photo: Alexandria Brown, September 7, 2013.Sign reads in part “This monitor was used at the now closed La Grange Mine near Weaverville in Trinity County and is similar in size to those used at the Malakoff to wash down the gravel hillsides.” Photo: Alexandria Brown, September 7, 2013.Abandoned building near North Bloomfield. Photo: Alexandria Brown, September 7, 2013.

Hydraulic mining caused some of the worst ecological damage of the mining era. It all began in 1852 with French Canadian miner Anthony Chabot and his partner Edward Mattison. They pointed a canvas hose at the ore supply and, with high water pressure, blasted the hillsides. The practice took off and soon the landscape was battle scarred. At its peak, the North Bloomfield Gravel and Mining Company had 100 miles of canals and ditches to pull water to the mines and were blasting 100,000 tons of gravel a day. Debris washed into the rivers and tributaries, causing extensive damage, pollution, flooding, and mudslides. Rivers as far south as the Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys were inundated. After a series of deadly floods, a court case in 1884 heavily restricted to the point of nearly eliminating hydraulic mining.

The landscape around North Bloomfield still lacks much soil and gravel. Photo: Alexandria Brown, September 7, 2013.The devastating results of hydraulic mining are still visible today. Photo: Alexandria Brown, September 7, 2013.